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Tuesday, November 30, 2004
holiday weekend
i love long weekends...i especially enjoyed this one...
 thanksgiving...the "christmas" of the States... one of the busiest travel days of the year... lucky for us we didn't have to travel to be with family... my mother-in-law baked this delicious chunk of roast beef... so tender, so tasty... i'm salivating just remembering it... we had it with corn, mashed potatoes and gravy... and if that wasn't enough we also had honeybaked ham on the side!... ayayay...the amount of food you can eat if you put your mind to it...hahaha... family friends came over to continue their thanksgiving celebration and the rest of the night was spent talking and joking around... it made me smile when i realized how good it feels to have a home people are comfortable in...
friday was spent furniture shopping... we got a king size bedframe, two side tables, and a huge dresser, all solid wood, in the dark finish that i like... we have to exchange our mattress though... the frame that was available was only for cal king... our mattress was an eastern king... the difference being that the cal king is longer and narrower than the eastern king... a minor but irritating detail... saturday was the busiest day for us... early morning we brought my car in for its scheduled tune up then went to the place where we bought our mattress to have it exchanged to a cal king size (lucky for us, they let us do that). after that we went to the mall to meet with my dad... he hasn't seen clara in a long time since his job takes him to different locations for long periods of time... we ate lunch at max's restaurant... we had their chicken (of course!), sinigang na hipon (tamarind soup with shrimps) and, since it was his birthday the past week, pancit canton (a noodle dish). we talked about different stuff... as usual the political and financial situation in the philippines and compare it to life here... everyone knows that the States is said to be the land of opportunity and my dad believes this to especially true for the younger generation... he vented his frustration that certain people related to us are not taking advantage of the fact that they can work here anytime they want when other people would to whatever it takes to come here...but he also knows that he can't force them to come so all we can do at the moment is shrug our shoulders and hope they make use of what they are taking for granted...  on the lighter side, clara finally warmed up to my dad...she is initially shy of the strangers she meets (although she randomly waves at them when they pass by)... since she hasn't seen my dad is a long time, he was a stranger to her...she would hide and cling to me everytime my dad would glance at her...but after lunch, she got used to him being there...as dad and i were talking, she gave my my dad a potato chip-filled smile and would walk around us, pause and smile again... she gave dad a handful of chips when asked (friends na sila)... she even showed dad her "tricks" like beautiful eyes, pretty smile, nguso (pursed lips), kiss, etc. which made my dad as happy as a lolo (grandfather) could be... all too soon, it was getting late and we had to say goodbye... it always makes me sad to leave...like we need more time to talk about random stuff... i could tell he feels the same way...*sigh*...
hubby and i had dinner with my cousin K from san francisco...we spent the night talking about her highlights as a masters student and our moving to the new house and who else, clara... of course hubby and i would gush like proud parents (well, we are...hehehe) about her quirks and habits...we dropped K off with a promise that we would visit her when her mom was in town... when hubby and i got home, we were exhausted as a result of our full day...i thought this was interesting because when you think about it we spent most of the day sitting down, having a meal and talking...hmmmm....clara, as usual, still like the energizer bunny at 10.30 in the evening... took a while for her to settle down but she finally drifted off to sleep... sunday...woke up late...had late breakfast...had a haircut...went to mass...had dinner...watched tv...SLEEP.... monday...back to work....arghhhh! Friday, November 19, 2004
doilies
There was once a man and woman who had been married
for more than 60 years. They had shared everything. They had talked about everything. They had kept no secrets from each other except that the little old woman had a shoe box in the top of her closet that she had cautioned her husband never to open or ask her about. For all of these years, he had never thought about the box, but one day the little old woman got very sick and the doctor said she would not recover. In trying to sort out their affairs, the little old man took down the shoe box and took it to his wife's bedside. She agreed that it was time that he should know what was in the box. When he opened it, he found two crocheted doilies and a stack of money totaling $25,000. He asked her about the contents. "When we were to be married," she said, "my grandmother told me the secret of a happy marriage was to never argue. She told me that if I ever got angry with you, I should just keep quiet and crochet a doily." The little old man was so moved, he had to fight back tears. Only two precious doilies were in the box. She had only been angry with him two times in all those years of living and loving. He almost burst with happiness. "Honey," he said, "that explains the doilies, but what about all of this money? Where did it come from?" "Oh," she said, "that's the money I made from selling the doilies." A Prayer....... I pray for Wisdom to understand my man; Love to forgive him; And Patience for his moods; Because if I pray for Strength I'll beat him to death. Tuesday, November 16, 2004
still in thought...
a friend emailed me this quiz... it was one of the more serious kind...kinda echoes what i'm feeling...i scored a 48 so i'm under the Introspective Phase
You're in the Introspective Phase of your life. You've walked through the autumn woods, and now you're sitting in the grass by the water's edge, taking in the beautiful mountains in the distance. You're deep in thought, somewhat overwhelmed by the magnitude and beauty of life and searching within for answers and direction. You seem to be studying your life from every angle, but you have a tendency to let your thoughts drift to the past, both good and bad. A major event from then is still with you, and you're trying to resolve it internally before you can move on. You're asking the big questions: "Why do I exist?" "What purpose do I have?" "What brought me to this place?". You're wondering if you could have done something different. At the same time, you're wondering what the future holds and if you've made the right choices, and whether you're currently on the right path. Your intuition is at an all time high, and you're more spiritual than ever. You will never have all of the answers, but you will learn something great about yourself. This is a deep phase of existence and a necessary one. We must all stop and look back at where we've been in order to move forward. This phase brings about great personal growth and healing, and we emerge from it stronger and wiser. What brought this phase on? A great change, discontentment, a period of stagnation, or even great loss or tragedy can put one in this state of mind. It may appear to onlookers that your life isn't moving--that you're going nowhere fast, that you have no direction, but that's far from true. You're healing and moving mountains within. You must make sure; however, that you don't let yourself dwell on the negative aspects of the past or mistakes you've made. As you look within, look for the good things and the happy memories. You'll need this inner fuel to catapult you to the next phase and to help you do your best. Positive thinking can get you to the action or Explorative phase quicker. Also, don't get so into yourself that you overlook others around you. Others still need you, your love, your friendship, and your insight. This phase is generally followed by the Action or Explorative Phase. Friday, November 12, 2004
Restless
" The three grand essential of happiness are: something to do, something to love and something to hope for." -Thomas Chalmers
I got the something to love and something to hope for down...i'm still working on that something to do part. i got a full-time job which is laid back enough that i can take a day off without worrying that i'll fall behind in my work. i can decide to take the afternoon off with just a moment's thought. it's such an ideal job for many of the working moms out there but for a few reasons i'm getting restless. first of all, i need/want to be earning more (who doesn't?) but i can't necessarily ask for more because business now is very slow...which brings me to my second reason, work now very slow...to the point that usually by 10 o'clock i got nothing to do till 5. at first, i enjoyed surfing the web...reading about news, beauty tips, entertainment gossip and the like. but it got old real fast. before the lull, 8 hours was barely enough time to get my work done...even with three of us on the job. each of us had at least 2 trucks. each truck had two shifts a day and each shift took at least 45 minutes to process which is about 3 hrs of our time. we had to edit the daily report, update the status report, have the data checked and sent to the customer...this had to be done before 12 noon PST (because the customer had a meeting 4pm their time). the data would sometimes have problems which would interrupt our "flow" ... fixing it would take anywhere from 15 min to a whole day to fix. everyday we had the engineer calling us at 10 and every 30 minutes after that asking for his data... and our boss breathing down our neck because the engineer is calling him too. i'm babbling.... as i was saying, now that work is slow and i'm basically staring at the computer all day looking for something interesting to read i feel my mind is slowly turning to mush. i used to really love what i do... i miss being challenged at this job...but i can't just leave because it would be hard to find a job which allows me to basically come and go as much as i want as long as i get my work done...which comes in useful when i have to watch clara while my mother-in-law has a doctor's appoinment which is at least once a month... it would be hard to do that at another job...i'm stuck in a rut... don't mind me...i'm just venting... Wednesday, November 03, 2004
movin' on up
this weekend's move went relatively smooth... the only hitch being we had no electricity the first night we were there...but on the bright side is that it was halloween, so it looked like it was intentional...hehehe...it went like this... since all of the bills of the apartment were in either my or hubby's name, i was responsible for calling the utility companies to stop service at the apartment and forward the bills to the new address...which is what i did. unfortunately, i forgot to set up a new account for electricity at the house. i think speaking to an automated voice over the phone threw me off. so we had no electricty the whole weekend.
we started moving our stuff in saturday morning. everyone got up early (a rare occurence on a weekend...but this weekend was special)...my mother and sister in law together with clara went ahead to bring in the rice and other food stuff in the house...the guys started loading the pickup truck...i stayed behind to finish cleaning out our room...around lunch time we had KFC at the new house...then a brief rest then started hauling stuff in again... good thing we were moving in a house less than 10 minutes away from the apartment else this going back and forth between both places would have been ridiculous. we stopped when it got dark and slept in that apartment for the last time. 
i'm ready!  
the house with lolo  
is it time to eat yet? lunch break 
nap time sunday morning the same cycle as saturday...load truck, drive the house, unload, drive back to the apartment, load again.... i must say the guys got the bulk of the work... they hauled all the big boxes, mattresses, tvs, computers, tables, the fridge, a sofa in the back of the pickup truck...not all at once, though...my hubby said it took 13 trips in two days to haul everything...not including the couple of mini trips with our cars loaded with the smaller boxes. as it got dark outside, we started to pack the remaining odds and ends left at the apartment...things like pens, paper, clips, wires, extension cords, etc....throw them into a bag and sort them out later...except these "odds and ends" filled up about 5 large garbage bags... that's alot of stuff!...when we got to the house, my mother in law had lighted candles put them around the house... we carried flashlights to get around... appropriately, it was halloween so outside looking in it kinda looked like a haunted house with the candles and the moving flashlights... on our street there were lots of kids doing the trick or treat thing...made me anticipate clara dolled up next year...maybe as dora? ;o) this weekend was tiring but fun...we were all in good spirits even with the work we had ahead of us...the guys were joking around even if they had to work to carry the heavy stuff...it wasn't stressfull or tense... very light hearted and smooth sailing considering we only had two days to move in... the weekend went by pretty fast. |
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